2. New Technologies Call For A Different Kind Of Review

Traditionally MobilityGuru reviews focus on one or more laptop or notebook computers, reporting on the features and ergonomics as well as performance. Both because the MSI MS-1029 is a barebones notebook and because of the current status of 64 bit computing, a purely traditional approach just won't work. Here's why.

First, the barebones nature of the MS-1029 allows for a wide variety of configurations. I can't just say, "OK, go buy this model number and you'll get this sort of setup and performance." I'll look at a specific configuration and tell you what I can about it, but if you buy a different CPU or put in more memory or a larger disk, your mileage will clearly vary.

Second, 64 bit computing is fairly new. It is undoubtedly the future of computing. The next release of Microsoft's Windows Server will come only in a 64 bit version and next releases of products like Exchange Server and SQL Server will be 64 bit and, thus, will only run on 64 bit Windows 2003 or the next version of Windows Server. But that's the future and that's in the server room.

Today you'll find few office, gaming and scientific applications that have been modified and compiled to run in a Windows 64 bit environment. These apps run under operating systems like Windows XP Pro X64 (the 64 bit version of XP Pro) in a 32 bit emulator ("Windows on Windows 64" or "WOW64"). How these apps perform in 32 bit emulation is interesting, but it says nothing about how much better the same apps written to take advantage of 64 bit processors might perform on the same hardware.

So one of the questions we'll need to answer in this review is: What are the performance differences between running 64 bit and 32 bit versions of the same application on a 64 bit CPU in both 64 bit and 32 bit emulation modes? Also, we'll want to know if there's any difference between running a 32 bit application under XP Pro X64 in 32 bit emulation and on the same computer running Windows XP Pro X32 (the 32 bit version of Windows XP Pro). And to round out our quest for knowledge, we'll need to know how 32 bit applications run on a 32 bit processor compared to running them on a 64 bit processor. Got that? Good, now explain it to me. Just kidding. If there is no significant difference on the 32 bit front, given the limitations of 64 bit notebook computing, you might either want to hold off your move to 64 bit computing or go there fully realizing that most of the apps you run will not take advantage of the 64 bit environment.

There is a third consideration with 64 bit computing. One of the main advantages of 64 bit systems is the much larger amount of memory they can address compared with 32 bit systems. Windows XP Pro X32 can address up to 4 GB of RAM; XP Pro X64, 128 GB and even more with support for Physical Address Extension. Using RAM to store what had traditionally gone to disk cache in 32 bit systems can greatly speed up the performance of 64 bit apps.

All that is goodness. However, I've yet to encounter a notebook computer that can hold 4 GB of RAM let alone 128. The MSI MS-1029 has a capacity of 2 GB; ours came with 512 MB. Even if you could stuff 6 or 10 or even 128 GB of RAM into a notebook you better buy a very long extension cord. Until much lower powered RAM hits the streets, you're not going to run your notebook on battery power for very long. So, while 64 bit computing is great for desktops and servers memory-wise, it could be a while before we'll benefit from 64 bits on laptops and notebooks when it comes to RAM.

The story is a bit different when you consider disk-based virtual memory, memory caching and page file sizes. XP X64 supports 16 TB of virtual memory (4 GB for XP Pro X32) and 1 TB of cache (1 GB for XP Pro X32) and page files up to 512 TB (16 TB for XP Pro X32). Generally, the more data an application can save to disk and quickly access, the faster it will run.

Before closing this section, I can't help throwing a bit of cold water on all of this addressing stuff. These advantages accrue only when you run real 64 bit applications. The current paucity of such applications should at least raise the question in your mind as to whether now is indeed the time to go 64 bit.